


RUTH CAMPBELL 

























































































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“ Where Is Peekaboo 1 ” 










THE 

RUNAWAY SMALLS 


By 

RUTH CAMPBELL 


Author of 

“That Pink and Blue Affair" 

“The All-Alone House” 


Illustrated by 

HATTIE LONGSTREET PRICE 

THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY 

PHILADELPHIA 

1923 







CO PYRIGHT 
1923 jt BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



The Runaway Smalls 


Manufacturing 

Plant 

Camden, N, J. 


Printed in the U. S. A. 


NOV 30 ^ 


©Clfc766055 



This book is affectionately dedicated to 

MARGHERITA O. OSBORNE 

And if you knew her you would know why 
books should be dedicated to her 












































ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

“Where Is Peekaboo?”. Frontispiece 

Tommie Tied Peekaboo. 13 

Huldah Allowed Herself to be Coaxed. 37 

Colin Said Good-bye. 69 


The Runaway Smalls 










The Runaway Smalls 


CHAPTER I 


HE children had not really intended to run away; as 



Buster said afterward, “ If Peekaboo and Sandy and 


Pat and Rex hadn’t been runaways, we wouldn’t have 
been,” and Grandmother, who had not scolded a bit, decided 
that Buster was right in the matter. 

The runaway began with a sort of picnic. A brunch picnic. 
Brunch was a little meal between breakfast and lunch and gen¬ 
erally consisted of one thing only, like cookies, or fruit, or 
maybe sandwiches. Having a brunch picnic was Marcia’s idea, 
and when the children started off they had no idea of being 
naughty. They were going to drive to the woods “ way out 
south ” and eat their round gingerbread cookies, and then hunt 


7 












8 The Runaway Smalls 

for fresh, red wintergreen berries which they were going to take 
home to Grandmother in little tin pails. 

Kenneth, who was the oldest, had bought the pails. He got 
three of them for thirty cents. (He had only twenty-five but 
Colin had the other five.) There were seven cousins but they 
divided the pails among them and were pleasant about not hav¬ 
ing one each. Buster and his little sister, Elizabeth Anne, took 
one, Colin and Kenneth and Tommie, who had no brothers or 
sisters, took one, and the other went to Marcia and her little 
sister Cara. 

Grown-ups said there were seven little cousins, but the cous¬ 
ins themselves said there were ten, because they always counted 
the three dogs. Rex, a big white dog, Sandy, a bristly Aire¬ 
dale, and Pat, the hound. They tagged at the children’s heels 
and got into mischief with them and ate everything they did 
and played the same games. Sometimes Sandy was cross and 
then was locked in the woodshed at Grandmother’s until he was 
good, but Rex stood everything the children did and was always 
ready to play, and Pat, who wore a sad face before, never 
failed to wag a friendly tail behind. 

The ten of them played every day at the Big House where 
Grandmother lived, and where Colin was visiting for the 
summer. The children adored their grandmother. 

“ Even ahead of our own mothers and fathers,” Tommie 
said once, “ and they don’t care at all, because once I heard my 
mother say that Grandmother should be loved that way for 
she was the best grandmother that ever lived.” 


The Runaway Smalls 9 

Early in the summer when Colin first came to visit, Grand¬ 
mother had bought the children a pony. His name was Peeka¬ 
boo and he had a knowing little head and was wise enough not 
to be imposed upon. He trotted cheerfully about, drawing a 
little red and yellow cart and the cousins spent hours driving 
him up and down the street or taking turns riding him. There 
were two seats in the cart and unless the dogs rode too it wasn’t 
a bit crowded. At first the children let the dogs climb in, but 
they all got so hot and the dogs barked such noisy barks and 
licked the children’s faces with long red tongues, that it spoiled 
the ride, and finally Kenneth decided against the dogs and the 
rest agreed that the best place for four-footed things was on 
the ground, so Rex used to trot proudly before, waving a big 
glad tail, and Sandy and Pat raced around yelping and jump¬ 
ing. 

The children met at the Big House early on the morning of 
the runaway. They always met there and started the day’s 
play. They ended it there too for that matter as there was 
never a lack of amusement to be found in the roomy old house, 
or in the pleasant grounds that surrounded it, while as Tommie 
said, “We sometimes have to think pretty hard to amuse our¬ 
selves at home.” 

Kenneth rode his bicycle down-town for the pails and came 
back with them swinging and clinking on the handle-bars. 
Marcia and Colin coaxed Cook to give them three gingerbread 
cookies apiece, and the rest asked Henry, the old coachman, to 
harness Peekaboo to the little red and yellow cart. 


io The Runaway Smalls 

They started off in the bright summer morning, Buster 
driving because it was his turn left over from the time before, 
the dogs racing along and the shiny little pails glistening in the 
sun. Peekaboo trotted willingly along and the children sang a 
song they had made up about him. 

We have a darling pony 

Who goes trotting up the street, 

And nods a cunning little head 

At every one we meet. 

Trot, trot, and trot, trot. 

His feet just fly along. 

Trot, trot, and trot, trot. 

We sing our jolly song. 

They loved to sing it, especially the trot, trot part because 
they could make that go exactly in time to the sound of Peek¬ 
aboo’s little hooves on the road, and when he walked they 
changed it to: 

“ Walk, walk, and walk, walk. 

His feet just drag along. 

Walk, walk, and walk, walk. 

We sing our jolly song.” 

That always made them laugh, because his feet did just drag, 
and the children could sing it as slowly as Peekaboo moved his 
feet, which was very slow, for he was a lazy little pony at times 
and simply would not be hurried up. Once Tommie tried 
whipping him, but only once, for Peekaboo had shown his dis¬ 
approval by kicking the dash-board promptly and hard with 
angry little heels, and the children had never used a whip again. 

They sang the song this morning and laughed a lot about 


11 


The Runaway Smalls 

nothing, but because it was a very bright cheerful day and they 
could not help feeling cheerful themselves. 

Past the gardener’s cottage they went, down the long road 
to the lake, then a turn to the right and a mile to the west with 
the dogs racing along and Peekaboo swinging his pretty little 
head. Presently they passed a farmhouse and then they turned 
to the south. A half-mile beyond they passed another farm¬ 
house and then the roads began to get sandy and Peekaboo 
slowed down to a walk. 

Kenneth hopped out to get some berries that grew by the 
side of the road. Tommie and Colin followed. 

“ Those aren’t any good,” Marcia said; “ let’s wait until we 
get to the woods; the berries won’t he covered with dust there 
and the sun won’t be so hot.” But Tommie and Colin and 
Kenneth said they could wipe the dust off and the berries tasted 
pretty good anyway, even if they were hot. 

At the edge of the woods they stopped to eat their brunch. 
It was surprising how hungry they were and how good the 
cookies tasted. 

“ I wish we had more,” Cara said, shaking the crumbs in her 
lap together so she could get them in her hand. “ Why didn’t 
you bring more, Marcia? ” 

“ Cook said that was all we could have. Colin teased her 
too but she said she would not let us spoil our lunch.” 

The others laughed. Marcia had said it exactly as Cook 
talked, and the way she nodded her head was exactly like Cook 
too, when she was a little cross. 


12 The Runaway Smalls 

“ Oh, well,” Cara said, “ she always says that, and we’ve 
never spoiled our lunch yet.” 

“ Anyway if we would rather have brunch than lunch what 
does it matter? ” Tommie grumbled. “ It’s food, no matter 
when we have it, and I should think it would do us more good 
to eat it when we want it.” 

“ Grown-ups are funny about that,” Marcia went on. “ It 
is queer that bread and butter and jam seems to hurt us when 
we want it between meals, but rice is good for us at meal-time 
even if we don’t want it.” 

“ Well, come on, if we are going to get any wintergreen 
berries,” Kenneth said, and they all piled into the cart again 
and drove deeper into the woods. Because Peekaboo was will¬ 
ing they went a great deal farther than they realized. The 
berries that grew a bit beyond always seemed brighter and big¬ 
ger than the ones at hand, and it was only when Peekaboo 
stopped short and refused to go on that they decided to tie him 
and begin to fill their pails. 

Tommie tied him, and not very carefully. Henry had taught 
the children how to tie a horse knot but there was a little trick 
about looping the end of the strap that Tommie did not always 
get, especially if he was in a hurry. He fussed now with the 
strap and ended by tying a granny knot, and with an impatient 
little tug at the strap, was off with the others in search of 
wintergreen berries. 

In the pleasure and excitement of filling their pails the chil¬ 
dren wandered deeper and deeper into the woods. None of 



Tommy Tied Peekaboo 










14 The Runaway Smalls 

them realized how far they were going until Kenneth stopped 
suddenly and said: 

“ Isn’t that Sandy barking? I thought I heard him two or 
three times a little while ago, and now I hear him again.” 

“ It sounds like his woof,” Tommie answered. “ Sandy does 
not bark like the other two dogs. Rex barks growlishly and Pat 
howls, but Sandy puts a sort of woof in his bark.” 

They listened. It was certainly Sandy’s bark and presently 
they heard Rex’s big bark added, but they were very faint and 
far away. 

“ They seem a long way off,” Elizabeth Anne said. Her 
voice had a little frightened tone which Kenneth noticed and 
hoped the others did not. 

“ Perhaps we’d better be going back,” he suggested. 

They started back and unconsciously quickened their pace. 
Suddenly Kenneth broke into a run and the others ran along 
with him. 

“ I didn’t know we had come so far,” panted Colin, staring 
about for a familiar object. 

“ We’re almost there,” said Kenneth; “ it’s right around this 
bend.” 

They turned the bend in the road and suddenly Marcia cried 
out: 

“ Oh! Where is Peekaboo? ” 

There was no pony or cart and no dogs. The children ran 
up to the tree where Tommie had tied the strap; around the tree 
were the marks of Peekaboo’s feet in the sand, and the funny 


The Runaway Smalls 1$ 

round places where the dogs had lain, but not a sign of any of 
the four animals. 

“ Tommie, did you tie him right? ” Kenneth demanded. 

“ I thought I did,” Tommie answered in a husky voice. 

“ I’ll bet you tied one of your silly granny knots, and it came 
untied, and now we’re in a nice fix,” scolded Buster. 

“ I’m thirsty,” wailed Elizabeth Anne. 

“ So’m I, and I want to go home,” echoed Cara, and then 
quite suddenly burst into tears. 

Kenneth looked serious. He wanted to scold Elizabeth 
Anne and Cara, and call them babies, but he felt rather alarmed 
himself and in his honest and manly way he thought it would 
not be quite fair to scold them for being frightened when he 
was frightened as well. 

“We can get you both a drink if you really want one,” 
he said in a steady voice; “there must be a farmhouse near 
here and anyway we aren’t really lost; we know the road 
back.” 

“ But it is so far,” wailed Elizabeth Anne. 

“ Well, we don’t have to walk, we can get some kind farmer 
to give us a lift,” Buster said. He thought Kenneth had been 
very brave and he wanted to be as brave. 

Kenneth looked grateful. “ That’s true, Buster, and even 
if we did have to walk the girls needn’t worry. You and I 
could carry Elizabeth Anne and Cara if they got awfully tired, 
and Colin is pretty strong too, so he could help.” 

“ Colin and I could make a chair with our hands,” Tommie 


16 The Runaway Smalls 

said confidently. He did not want to be counted out of any 
help the boys might have to give the girls. 

“ There, the dogs are barking again,” Marcia said. “ Maybe 
Peekaboo has caught the wheels somehow and is stuck so we 
will find him after all.” 

They all started in the direction of the barks which at times 
sounded very near and at other times seemed to fade away. On 
and on they went, the boys whistling to keep up their spirits 
and the girls trudging silently along. 

“ The barks are awfully close, and here they are,” shouted 
Kenneth joyously, as they all broke through the woods and 
into a little clearing. 

But the barks were not Sandy’s or Rex’s or Pat’s. A strange 
collie dog was running around a flock of sheep trying to make 
them keep together while he drove them on. The sheep were 
silly and stupid; they kept scattering and running in all direc¬ 
tions, the lambs getting away from their mothers and then baa¬ 
ing as loud as they could until their poor mothers found them. 
The collie’s tongue was out and his ears and tail flapped as he 
bounded around the sheep, barking, and pushing them gently 
when they wouldn’t mind. The sheep were so very stupid and 
the collie was such a patient and good-natured doggie that the 
children forgot their troubles for the time being and stood 
watching the smart collie work. But finally he coaxed the 
leader to start ahead and the rest followed. Then the children 
remembered that they were lost and Elizabeth Anne and Cara 
grew frightened again. 


The Runaway Smalls 17 

“ It’s too bad,” Kenneth said, “ but you mustn’t get crying; 
you know I will take care of you and nothing worse can hap¬ 
pen to us than getting awfully tired.” 

“I’m that now,” cried Cara. 

“ You ^ ouldn’t be if you didn’t think you were lost,” said 
Marcia honestly. “ If you were just picking berries you would 
walk a thousand miles and never know it.” 

“ I wouldn’t,” said Cara. 

“ You would, and you’re a great baby,” scolded Marcia 
crossly. 

Cara began to cry hard. “ Don’t,” said Kenneth gently, 
“ we might as well be good-natured. Let’s go back to the road 
and maybe we can find a farmer driving back to town and get 
a ride.” 

They turned back in the woods but there were no paths 
or roads and they could not remember which way they 
had come. Buster started in one direction and Tommie in 
another. 

“ This is the way we came,” said Kenneth, going in still 
another direction. 

“ It can’t be,” argued Tommie. “ I remember passing this 
stump.” 

Cara, following Kenneth, turned to look at Tommie. She 
stepped in a little hole and fell. Elizabeth Anne, watching her, 
stumbled over a fallen branch and went flat on her face; their 
howls rang out together. Marcia joined them. 

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I’ve torn my prettiest play dress 


18 The Runaway Smalls 

on some brambles,” she cried. “ Kenneth! wherever are we 
going? Have you any idea or has anybody else? ” 

Kenneth stopped short. “ No,” he said honestly, “ I haven’t, 
and I guess nobody has. We’re lost all right now and the only 
thing to do is to sit down and rest and stop crying and talk it 
over.” 

“ Well, how can we talk about something we don’t know 
anything about, and we certainly don’t know anything about 
where we are? ” Elizabeth Anne fairly screamed. 

Kenneth remembered something he had heard his father say. 
“ You’ll never get anywhere when you’re excited. Let’s be 
calm and try to think.” 

They sat down in a frightened, huddled group then, and 
for a time nothing was heard but the far-away barks of the 
strange collie and the sobs of Elizabeth Anne and Cara. 



CHAPTER II 


K ENNETH spoke first. “Aren’t we a lot of sillies? 
Here we sit, some of us crying and all of us scared.” 
Marcia gave a kind of hysterical giggle. “ I’ve been 
thinking that we all look like a ring of mushrooms; Cara in a 
hump, Elizabeth Anne all doubled up and even Colin looks 
round like a toadstool.” 

Colin laughed at that and Cara wiped the tears from her 
face. Then Kenneth spoke again. 

“ Shall we have a captain and some under-officers? We 
may as well decide on something, and we can never get out of 
this mess if every time we start off we all go in a different di¬ 
rection and quarrel about it.” 

“ That’s true,” Buster agreed. “ You be the captain, Ken, 
and we’ll all go where you say.” 

“ Well, let’s go somewhere,” Kenneth answered; “ and which 
way shall it be? ” 


19 




20 The Runaway Smalls 

They decided to follow the sun. “ At least that will keep 
us going straight and we won’t be going around in circles,” 
Tommie said, and so they started off through the woods but 
following the sun which seemed to be astonishingly down in the 
sky. 

“It’s way past noon,” Colin said; “no wonder we are so 
hungry.” 

“ You had brunch, you know,” Marcia told him. 

“ Yes, but that was so long ago I can’t even remember the 
taste now,” Colin answered. 

On and on they trudged. Marcia tore her dress again and 
Cara left a bit of stocking and some skin on a wild rose bush. 
They limped along and said nothing beyond an occasional 
“ Ouch! ” when a toe was stubbed or a leg scratched. Two or 
three times Elizabeth Anne cried and then Kenneth took her 
hand and talked with her gently so that she smiled again and 
tried to be as brave as the others. Their little faces were grimy 
with tears and dust and the boys had long ‘ since stopped 
whistling or trying to reassure each other about finding the way, 
and they all found that holding each other’s hand was a great 
comfort. 

It was four o’clock in the afternoon when the little hand came 
in sight of a farmhouse. Their eyes filled with tears when they 
saw it and there were lumps in the little throats. It was a neat, 
square house with doors and windows opened in a hospitable 
way. Under a spreading tree in the yard a woman sat paring 
potatoes. 


The Runaway Smalls 21 

Kenneth looked at his cousins. “ Let’s not cry before her,” 
he said. “ I’ll tell her we are lost and hungry and she will be 
nice to us, I know. We don’t want her to think we are cry¬ 
babies.” 

They approached the woman silently. She did not see them 
until they stood before her, and then looking up suddenly, she 
gave a little start and said, “Land o’ goodness! Who are 
you?” 

“ I’m Kenneth Ramsdell,” Kenneth said bravely, although 
for some unaccountable reason he felt that he was going to 
cry, “ and these are my cousins. They are all my first cousins.” 
He did not know what else to say. 

“ Well, you all look alike as far as dust is concerned,” said 
the woman with a smile. 

Cara sobbed a little; she was just so tired she could not stand 
it to be teased, even though the woman did look very pleasant. 

“ We have been lost,” Kenneth went on. “ I’m the captain 
and we have walked miles and miles. They made me captain 

so we would all go the same way, and-” suddenly his voice 

broke and his eyes filled with tears. “ I tried to get us found,” 
he explained; “ we were all very tired of being lost.” 

The woman put her pan down and looked at them seriously; 
her smile had gone and in its place was an expression of tender 
sympathy. “ You poor little chicks, I’ll bet you are hungry 
and so tired that you think your feet will drop off.” She held 
out her arms to Cara and Elizabeth Anne who flung themselves 
in her lap and burst into noisy weeping. 


22 The Runaway Smalls 

“ There, there, don’t you cry. I know where there is a big 
pan of fresh cookies and a great jug of milk, and I know where 
there is a pump too, so you all can wash,” she said comfort¬ 
ingly. 

Her kindness was too much for the rest, and the tears just 
wouldn’t stay back; even Kenneth who had been so brave 
began to sob, and Buster cried as hard as Cara and Elizabeth 
Anne. 

“ I said there was a pump,” the woman went on. 

That made Kenneth smile a little and the woman stood up 
and gave him her hand. 

“ You’re a brave little captain, and now your troubles are 
all over,” she went on; “ now come and clean up.” She went 
into the kitchen and got towels. “ There now, you can all wash 
and then we’ll all sit under the tree and have something to eat. 
Are you hungry? ” 

“Awfully,” said Kenneth. “We have not had anything 
but cookies since breakfast.” 

“ You poor little toad,” the woman said, “ then I guess you’ll 
want something more than cookies now. Well, clean up your 
soldiers and I’ll see what I can find.” 

So Kenneth and Buster washed Elizabeth Anne and Cara 
and the rest washed themselves and by that time the woman 
came back and said she had something for them to eat and that 
it was all under the big tree like a picnic. They followed her 
back and there on the ground was a snowy white cloth with 
seven plates around it and in the center dishes piled high with 


The Runaway Smalls 23 

things that looked wonderfully good. There was a plate of 
cold meat and one of bread and butter. There was a glass of 
red jelly and a pitcher of foaming milk, and a platter of cookies 
cut in fancy shapes. 

The children never said a word. They flopped down by the 
plates and began to eat. The woman passed everything and 
said nothing herself, only smiled at them when they looked at 
her and offered them more food. 

Buster was the first to remember his manners. 

“ You’re so good,” he said, “ and so is your food.” 

“ Never mind thanking me, you just eat,” answered the 
woman; “ it does me good to see you.” 

But when the last drop of milk had been poured and the 
last cookie eaten she said, “ Now tell me all about it.” 

So Kenneth told her how the pony had broken away and how 
they had followed the barks, and how they got all mixed up in 
the woods and how after walking miles and miles they had finally 
found her. She listened intently and when Kenneth finished 
she said: 

“ Your grandmother and mothers will be worried to death 
about you. I’ll call one of the men and have him ride to town 
to tell them you are safe.” She went to the house and rang a 
big bell that hung by the pump and presently a man came up 
from the fields and asked her what she wanted. 

“ I want you to put a saddle on ‘ Dandy ’ and ride to town. 
Go to Mrs. Ramsdell’s house and tell her that the children are 
with me and all right, and that I will keep them until she sends 


24 The Runaway Smalls 

for them. I’d send them in myself but with the horses in the 
field there is no way.” 

The man rode off and the children watched him with happy 
eyes. 

“ There are kittens in the barn,” the woman said after the 
man was out of sight, “ and in the yard there are two little 
lambs. I know where there are some baby chicks too, and we 
have a little puppy running around somewhere.” 

The children raced to the barn, their troubles forgotten and 
their little faces shiny with happiness. 

At the gate of the barnyard Kenneth stopped. “ Why! ” he 
cried, “ there is the collie we saw driving the sheep.” And 
sure enough there he was lying by the fence watching the sheep 
he had brought home. 

“We weren’t so awfully lost then,” said Marcia. 

“We were lost enough to suit me,” Colin answered. 

“ Me too,” echoed Cara. 

It was two hours before the man returned. 

“ Your grandmother is sending for you right away,” he told 
the children. “ She’s had a dreadful day. The pony came 
home with the dogs chasing him and the man went right back 
the way he came but couldn’t find you. Everyone has been 
frightened and your fathers have gone all over the county 
looking for you.” 

“ Were they cross? ” Tommie wanted to know. 

“ No, they were frightened but now they are glad.” 

It wasn’t long before Buster, who was looking down the 


The Runaway Smalls 25 

road, shouted, “ Here they come! ” and a minute after Henry 
stopped the horse at the farm gate. 

“ And there’s Grandmother,” Colin cried and rushed to the 
carriage to fling himself in her arms. 

Grandmother’s eyes were wet as she hugged him, and when 
Cara cried, “ Grandmother, I never did think I’d see you 
again,” the tears spilled over and she cried with the children as 
they hugged and kissed her in turn. 

“ Let me speak with the kind woman who sent me word, be¬ 
fore we leave,” Grandmother said, and Kenneth raced back to 
get her. 

Grandmother leaned out of the carriage and put out a white- 
mitted hand. 

“ You have been very good to my babies,” she said, “ and I 
won’t forget all you have done. We will be driving out again 
soon; the children will want you to have something to remember 
them by.” 

“ I’ll not forget them anyway,” the woman laughed. “ The 
way the poor little things trudged up all dust and tears, and so 
tired and hungry.” 

Grandmother took the woman’s hand. It was calloused with 
work and hard like a man’s, hut she held it gently. 

“ Isn’t there something you would like especially? ” 

The woman started to shake her head, but looking into the 
dear, kind face she changed her mind. 

“ Nothing I’d want you to get,” she said. 

But Grandmother persisted. “ There must be something 


26 The Runaway Smalls 

and the children would be so happy if you would let them get 
it.” 

But still the woman would not tell and said again that she 
would remember the children without a present, and Grand¬ 
mother had to drive off without finding out what it was that 
she really wanted. But down the road they met the man who 
had ridden to town. Grandmother stopped him. He was the 
brother of the kind woman and when Grandmother asked him 
what they could get her for a present, he said: 

“ She’s been wantin’ a machine, a sewing machine. Her 
husband and me had it fixed up to get her one last Christmas, 
but the windmill blew down and we had to use the money for 
that.” 4* 

Grandmother thanked him and as they drove on she told the 
children that she would buy the machine and that Henry would 
drive out with it on Saturday and that they could all go with 
him. Of course the cousins were delighted. 

“ You are so good and generous, Grandmother,” Colin said, 
and Grandmother laughed and answered: 

“ It is worth a dozen sewing machines to have my babies back 
all safe and sound, and now tell me how it happened.” 

So they told the story from the time they started to get 
wintergreen berries to the time Henry and Grandmother had 
come for them. 

Henry turned around. M I can’t understand how that pony 
came in from the north,” he said, “ but he certainly did, and 
that is the way we went to look for you. The dogs were chasing 



alongside and barking and Peekaboo was all tired out. It’s a 
wonder the cart wasn’t smashed.” 

“ But it wasn’t, was it? ” the children cried together. 

" No,” Grandmother told them, “ no damage was done be¬ 
yond cracking our hearts for a time. But they are all mended 
now that you are all back safe and sound. But I want you 
























28 The Runaway Smalls 

promise me something. That you will never again start off 
without telling someone where you are going. It is a very 
dangerous thing to do and you might get into serious trouble 
before you were found.” 

“ This was serious enough,” said Kenneth. 

The mothers and fathers were all at the Big House when 
Henry drove in the yard, and such hugging and kissing. The 
cousins piled out of the carriage and were caught in hungry 
arms. Of course the mothers cried and talked a lot, mothers 
are like that, but the fathers said little, only held small hands 
and looked very pleased and proud. 

Grandmother explained that it was really not the fault of the 
children, and that they had not meant to be naughty, and then 
she lined the cousins up before her and their fathers and moth¬ 
ers. 

“ Now you are going to make that promise,” she said. 

So they all promsied solemnly that they would never again 
go away without telling some grown-up where they were 
going, and of course their parents knew they would keep that 
promise. 

But Henry wasn’t satisfied. “ Excuse me, Mrs. Ramsdell,” 
he said, “ but I’d like them young ’uns to make me a promise 
too.” 

“ Very well, Henry, and what shall they promise? ” 

“ That they’ll all learn to tie a horse knot, no more granny 
knots that slip.” 

“ They’ll promise that too,” laughed Tommie’s father, 


The Runaway Smalls 29 

“ because they won’t be allowed to drive Peekaboo until they 
do.” 

“ Then we’ll promise right now,” said the cousins, and 
Henry drove to the barn satisfied. 


CHAPTER III 


“ RANDMOTHER, do you know where Colin is?” 

IX Marcia asked. “ We’ve been looking everywhere for 
him and called and called, but we can’t find him any¬ 
where.” 

“ Have you looked in the bams? I heard him say he was 
going to play in the old shed after breakfast, and you will prob¬ 
ably find him there.” 

The children raced away to the old shed and at the bottom 
of the ladder gave their call, “ Coo-oo, coo-ee.” 

“ Coo-oo,” answered Colin, and a minute later his head ap¬ 
peared in the opening above. 

“ Come on up,” he called happily. “ I have a perfectly 
grand idea.” 

The cousins climbed the ladder. Cara and Elizabeth Anne 
first so they could be caught if they fell. Once Cara had fallen 
and bounced down the ladder like a rubber ball. Fortunately 
for her Kenneth was half-way up when she slipped, and so she 
had landed on him, and as she said afterward, “ He was quite 
soft, so I wasn’t hurt.” But Kenneth rubbed a bruised shoul¬ 
der for the week following. 

Colin was in the center of an interesting pile. Kails, ham¬ 
mers, saws, and boards. 


30 


The Runaway Smalls 31 

“ Now what? ” said Buster. He loved saying that because it 
was like his father. 

“ Plenty,” answered Colin briefly. 

“ It looks like a box,” Tommie said. “ What is it for? ” 

“ It was a box once,” Colin told him, “ before I sawed it in 
half. Now it fits this,” and he held up an old window-sash. 

“ What good does that do? ” asked Marcia. 

Colin put his hammer down. “ I’ll tell you about it. I got 
the idea from Roy and Henry. They were hoisting oat bags 
to the top of the barn with a pulley, the pulley that they use for 
hay; it swings out and in and slides back on a long bar.” 

“ We know that old pulley,” Buster said, “ it’s been in the 
barn for years.” 

“ And you’ve never used it? ” Colin asked. There was a 
tone of disgust in his voice. 

“ What could it be used for? ” Kenneth wanted to know. 

“ Lots of things, but this time it is going to be used for an 
elevator. We are going to nail this old window-sash to the 
outside of the box and then make four holes in it for ropes. 
We’ll tie those together about ten feet from the box and fasten 
the pulley rope to them, then we can pull each other up and 
down and play office building.” 

“Yes, and where’ll we get off when we get to the top?” 
Marcia wanted to know. 

“ On that steel beam; it is wide enough to sit on and even if 
we did fall it wouldn’t bother much because there is so much 
hay underneath,” Colin said. 


32 The Runaway Smalls 

“ It would be a good long fall,” Cara remarked; “ it must be 
a thousand feet.” 

The boys hooted. “ It isn’t ten feet, that old beam isn’t,” 
Tommie said. 

“ Well, it doesn’t matter how far it is,” Colin went on, “ be¬ 
cause none of us will fall, and the higher the better because it 
will make the ride in the elevator longer, and the ones at the 
top can wait for a return trip to get down.” 

“ Who is going to hoist? ” Tommie asked. 

“ Two of us can do it; the rope goes around three times. I 
asked Henry why it did that and he said to make it easier to 
raise things. He was pulling great, heavy sacks up alone and 
said it wasn’t hard a bit, so I guess two of us can pull this old 
elevator up all right,” Colin said. 

They all began work and soon the window-sash was nailed 
securely to the box and the holes were bored. Cara stood too 
near while Kenneth did that and the tool caught in her dress 
and tore it. 

“ It doesn’t matter,” she said, “ it is faded and mended and I 
know Mother won’t care.” She was too interested in the ele¬ 
vator to worry about torn frocks. 

They tied the ropes to the sash and let the box out of the 
shed window. It wasn’t heavy and they had no trouble lowering 
it to the ground. 

“ Come on,” Colin said; “ now for the pulley.” 

Getting it up was unexpectedly hard; after they had dragged 
the box to the hay barn without being seen (Henry was away 


The Runaway Smalls 33 

with the horses and Roy was working in the flower gardens), 
they couldn’t reach the rope. It had slipped up and was far 
above their heads, and there was no way to reach it from the 
hay. 

Finally Tommie said, “ If I can find a rake I can reach the 
rope by climbing over the window and crawling on that beam 
around the side.” 

“ You climb and I’ll find the rake,” Buster said. So Tom¬ 
mie scrambled up over the window and around to the side. He 
leaned over for the rake which he could just reach and pulled it 
up. There was a knot in the pulley rope and he hooked the 
rake over it and let it drop. Down it came with the end of 
the rope which the children caught joyfully and tied to the 
elevator. 

“ All ready; let’s try her first with nobody in her,” Kenneth 
said. And away went the elevator in the air. It worked splen¬ 
didly and wasn’t at all hard to pull up. 

“ Who wants to try it? ” Buster asked. 

“ I’ll go first,” said Colin, “ because I thought of it and if 
anything breaks I should be the one to be hurt.” 

“ Fine! Let’s play life-savers, and you’re being shot out 
of a floundering ship in a rocket,” Tommie suggested. 

“ Ships founder, they don’t flounder; that’s a fish,” Kenneth 
said loftily, “ and men don’t get shot out of rockets; that’s ropes 
to carry the men later.” 

“Well, let’s play life-savers anyway,” Tommie went on. 
He did not greatly care how Colin was sent from the ship as 


34 The Runaway Smalls 

long as he was sent. So they at once became life-savers and 
Colin made the trial trip with great success. 

“Now let’s take some panic-stricken passengers ashore,” 
Kenneth cried. 

“ You read that in a book,” Tommie challenged. 

“ It doesn’t matter where I read it,” Kenneth answered. 
“ Let’s be panic-stricken passengers.” 

So Cara and Elizabeth Anne were babies and were sent from 
the ship by their terrified mother who was Marcia, of course, and 
Kenneth cheered them on and called encouraging words. 
Colin was the captain of the sinking vessel and wouldn’t leave 
his ship until everyone was saved, and Pat, the hound, was the 
mascot and made the last trip with the captain. 

It was a great success; even the dogs seemed to like it, al¬ 
though there was some trouble with Rex. He just wouldn’t 
climb into the box. 

“ He simply must,” panted Tommie, who was trying to lift 
Rex over the top. Rex flattened down and made himself limp 
and heavy. 

“ If he is going to be a Bengal tiger and be shipped across 
the ocean he’ll have to be loaded,” Buster said, and the children 
pulled and tugged and lifted and pushed until finally Rex was 
in the box and looking very scared and uncomfortable. He was 
given three rides. Once when he was a Bengal tiger, and twice 
when he was a circus elephant and being shipped from Liver¬ 
pool to New York. 

Pat and Sandy didn’t mind the rides at all, and were hyenas 


The Runaway Smalls 35 

and gorillas and ant-eaters by turn and leaped joyously in and 
out of the elevator as they were told, hut Rex simply wouldn’t 
get in again. Once out of that dreadful swinging thing he hid 
in the hay and would not be dragged within twenty feet of it. 
Three times up and down had been plenty for him and no 
amount of coaxing could get him to repeat the rides. 

The children played happily until noon and then left for 
their homes. They fairly gobbled their lunches and were back 
in the hay barn within an hour, where they rode up and down 
in the elevator and took turns pulling on the rope. But toward 
the middle of the afternoon their fascinating new game began 
to drag. 

“ I wish we had somebody else to ride in it,” Kenneth said. 
“ We’ve all ridden so much it isn’t fun any more.” 

“Let’s get Huldah; she’ll ride in it, I know,” Colin sug¬ 
gested. 

Huldah was the housemaid and on very rare occasions joined 
the children in their play. 

“ She won’t even come to the barn,” Tommie said. “ She 
never will play, always says she hasn’t time.” 

“ Sometimes she will,” Marcia answered. 

“ I’ll just bet she won’t now,” Tommie retorted. 

“ Maybe she will if we coax,” Colin said. “ I’ll go and ask 
her. I can at least get her down here by telling her we have a 
surprise, and I’ll offer her what’s left of my box of candy if she 
will ride.” 

Huldah was willing to lend a friendly ear to Colin’s plan. 


36 The Runaway Smalls 

She had one decided weakness and that was for candy, and 
Colin, like the clever little boy he was, got the box first before 
he suggested the barn. There was quite a lot of candy left in 
it and Huldah agreed willingly to go to the bam to see the 
“ surprise ” when Colin offered it to her. But when she saw 
the elevator and was invited to ride she backed away, much as 
Rex had done. 

“ Me, go up in that thing? Not much I won’t.” 

“ Oh, come on! ” Tommie teased. “ It’s perfectly safe.” 

“Not much it ain’t,” said Huldah firmly. 

“ Yes, it is,” Kenneth assured her; “ we’ve all been up and 
down a dozen times. Come on; you’ll like it.” 

“ Not much I won’t,” repeated the stubborn Huldah. 

“ Oh, don’t be a baby! ” Tommie cried in exasperation. 
“ Look at me.” He jumped in the box and shouted, “ Pull 
her up, men! ” and Kenneth and Colin lifted him to the top of 
the barn and let him down again. 

“ There, you see. Miss Huldah, it is safe. Come on now 
and ride, please.” 

Huldah began to weaken. 

“ Come on,” urged Marcia, pulling her by the apron. 

Huldah allowed herself to be coaxed to the side of the 
elevator but when it came to climbing in she backed away 
again. 

“ You’re a great baby, Huldah,” Tommie scolded. 

“ I’ll buy you one of those big sticks of wintergreen candy if 
you will,” Colin promised. 


The Runaway Smalls 


37 



Huldah Allowed Herself to be Coaxed 



































38 The Runaway Smalls 

“ Well, then, just this once,” and Huldah climbed into the 
box. 

“ Pull her up, men! ” shouted Tommie, and away went the 
elevator. 

“ Oh! ” screamed Huldah, “ it swings terrible, it does.” She 
lunged to one side of the box which tipped perilously. 

“ Get in the middle, then it won’t tip,” called Kenneth. 

But Huldah didn’t get in the middle. She slid to the other 
side and the box tipped again. “ Oh, I’ll just be killed, I will, 
and I know it.” 

Terrified, she tried to stand up. 

“ Sit down,” cried Buster, “ or you’ll crack your head on 
that beam.” But he spoke too late. Huldah’s head smashed 
into the beam and the elevator came to a stop. 

“ I’m killed, I am,” she cried, and caught the beam with 
both hands. Here was something substantial and she intended 
to hang on to it. 

“ Let go and we’ll bring you down,” Kenneth called. 

“ Not much I won’t,” cried Huldah. “ Me come down in 
this thing? Not much. You’ll get Roy and Henry and they’ll 
get a ladder, they will, and I’ll come down without being killed, 
I will. But I’ll never be let down in this box, not if I stay 
here the rest of my life.” 

“ We’ll let the rope go,” threatened Marcia. 

“ And I’ll hang to this beam and scream, I will, and maybe 
drop and break my legs.” 

“ Huldah, don’t be silly,” Marcia begged. SHe was a lit- 


The Runaway Smalls 39 

tie frightened and wanted to get Huldah down quickly and 
safely* 

But Huldah was really terrified and meant what she said 
about hanging to the beam. She had no idea of taking the 
return trip and she hung to the beam frantically and half 
screamed and half cried. 

Kenneth was beginning to be frightened too. “ Huldah, 
please listen,” he begged. 

“ I’ll listen to nothing except another way to get down,” 
Huldah said angrily; “ and you’d better find that way quick 
or I’ll tell your grandmother on you all, I will. You get Roy 
and Henry and I’ll hang here until they come.” 

“ But we can’t hold this rope. We’re getting tired now,” 
Buster said. 

“ Then tie it to one of them side beams,” Huldah told him, 
“ and tie it good.” 

“ But we’re not sure of our knots. You know Peekaboo got 
untied,” Tommie said. 

Huldah was on the verge of a collapse. “ You young ’uns 
tie that rope and tie it good and you get Roy and Henry and 
a ladder quick. I’m going to faint, I am.” 

This was awful. Terrified, the children tied the rope, mak¬ 
ing it fast with many knots of all shapes and sizes. There was 
no danger that the elevator might fall even if Huldah did re¬ 
lease her hold on the beam, which she had no intention of doing. 

“Now get ’em quick!” she screamed, and the frightened 
children raced out of the bam. 



CHAPTER IV 


C LANG! Clang! Gong! Gong! The children 

stopped at the side of the road. 

“ It’s the fire department, and it’s coming this way,” 
Buster cried. 

Clang! Clang! Gong! Gong! The bell was getting 
nearer every minute. 

“ Here they come,” screamed Marcia, “ and they are coming 
right past us.” 

The chemical wagon turned the corner and came dashing 
down the street. There were three running horses harnessed 
to it. They were shiny and black and their mouths were opened 
and their breasts were covered with white foam. 

“ Eeeeee! ” shrieked Cara, “ look at ’em go.” 

The horses were running with their bodies low to the ground, 
taking every leap together and as they shot ahead the great 
chemical wagon seemed to bound after them. 

“ Look out, you! ” Kenneth cried to Cara, who had run into 
40 































The Runaway Smalls 41 

the street to look after the running horses. “ Here comes an¬ 
other.” 

Clang! Clang! Gong! Gong! On came tlie hook and lad¬ 
der cart. There were only two horses harnessed to that, but 
they were such wonderful big white horses that the children 
stared at them entranced. Their heavy manes streamed back 
in the breeze, and their heads with the wide, red nostrils, and 
flat ears looked like the heads of painted horses. 

“ Aren’t they wonderful? ” Colin whispered. 

Cara caught at his hand. “ Will there be more? ” 

“ There should be a hose cart. Yes, here that comes too,” 
and around the corner shot the hose cart. 

But down the street it slowed up and the men jumping from 
it ran to the hydrant and began attaching the hose. 

“ Why, it must be right around the corner,” Buster gasped, 
and the cousins started down the street as fast as their legs 
could carry them. 

Sure enough the fire was on the next street. A little frame 
house was blazing merrily. The roof was a mass of crackling 
flames and the up-stairs windows were beginning to show a red 
glow inside. 

Men were carrying furniture out of the front door and to 
a porch across the street. A crying woman was being taken to 
a neighbor’s and a little boy with a wriggling puppy in his arms 
came running out of the door calling, “Don’t cry, Mother 
dear, it’s only the roof and they’ll put it right out. Don’t cry, 
Mother.” 


42 The Runaway Smalls 

The cousins stood close together, the girls looking very sorry 
and frightened, and the boys looking very excited and inter¬ 
ested. 

“ That poor little boy, did you see how carefully he was 
carrying his dog? ” Marcia said. 

“ Gee! there goes another part of the roof,” Kenneth cried. 

“ And there go the firemen,” Buster cried. 

The firemen had their ladders up against the side of the house 
by this time and were running up like agile monkeys. They 
carried the nozzle of the hose with them and the men on the 
ground passed the heavy hose along to them. 

“ Water! ” cried the chief, and “ Water! ” cried the men in 
turn. 

The men at the hydrant turned the water on. “ Sisssssh! ” 
came the great, powerful stream through the hose. It twisted 
and moved like some enormous snake and the men on the ladder 
clung to the nozzle and directed the stream to the blazing roof. 

The chief waved his hands to his men. Two of them ran up 
the ladder and caught the nozzle, while those already on the 
ladder crawled to the roof. 

“ It must be hot up there,” Colin said in an awed voice. 

At the words “ up there ” a fleeting thought went through 
Kenneth’s mind. There was something about Huldah up 
there. The thought vanished but came back. It was a per¬ 
sistent, nagging, little thought, and it was about Huldah. 
What was it? He turned to Colin. 

“ Did we-” he began, but a cry interrupted him. 



43 


The Runaway Smalls 

“ There is a cat in one of those windows,” someone called. 

Sure enough, a little Maltese kitten crouched on the window¬ 
sill of one of the up-stairs windows and mewed piteously. 

“ Oh dear! ” cried Elizabeth Anne and Cara together. 

“ They won’t let it burn,” Kenneth assured them in a con¬ 
fident tone, and in a minute one of the firemen caught at the 
sill from the ladder and swung himself up on it. He took the 
kitten gently in his arms and then disappeared inside the house. 

“ He’ll get burned alive,” Cara cried. “ It was veiy brave of 
him to save that poor little kitten.” 

“ Of course he won’t, silly,” Buster said, but Cara and Eliza¬ 
beth Anne were not so sure and were very glad indeed when 
the brave fireman appeared in the front door and walked down 
the steps. The little boy who had carried the puppy out dashed 
up and held out his arms for the kitten. 

“ The fire is getting put out,” Colin said. And for a minute 
it did look as if the firemen had conquered it. But directly a 
vicious flame shot out of the roof again and then another burst 
from the side of the house. 

“ It’s a bad one,” a man near the children said, and the 
cousins stood closer together and looked more awed than ever. 

The little persistent thought about Huldah came back to 
Kenneth. He started to speak of it again when suddenly there 
was a cry of “ Look out! ” and people began to run in all di¬ 
rections. A man caught Elizabeth Anne and Cara by their 
hands and half pulled and half dragged them down the street. 
The others followed. 


44 


The Runaway Smalls 

“ What’s happened? ” Kenneth asked. 

“ Hose separated, and if you’d stayed there you’d ’a’ been 
soaked. Look at those boys.” 

The children looked* About ten boys stood in a wet and 
bedraggled group. They had been standing near the hose when 
it separated and they got the full benefit of the undirected 
stream. Every one of them was soaked to his skin, and the 
water ran out of their sleeves and their jackets. 

“ This is a good place to stay and watch,” Buster decided. 
“ We won’t get into any trouble here.” 

A hose attached to another hydrant gave the firemen a sec¬ 
ond good stream to fight the fire, and the flames, discouraged 
with such a downpour of water, began to hide their heads 
and smoke spitefully. The firemen’s faces got black and 
streaked and the roof no longer sizzled as the water descended 
on it. 

Finally the chief gave orders to detach one hose and some of 
the firemen came down from the ladders. Two or three of them 
went in the front door and appeared in the windows directly; 
they called down to the chief and after a while he stopped the 
stream from the other hydrant and all of the men clambered 
down the ladders. 

The wet, dirty hose was rolled up on the cart. Men who 
had been watching began carrying the furniture back into the 
house. The crying woman and her little boy went in after them 
and soon they too could be seen in the up-stairs rooms looking 
at the burned roof. The woman cried harder then; the chih 


The Runaway Smalls 45 

dren could tell because the little boy was petting her and his 
father was holding her in his arms. 

“ I’m awfully sorry for her,” Marcia said. 

“ So am I,” Cara answered, and the others echoed, “ So are 
we.” 

Watching the things being carried back into the house was 
quite as exciting as seeing them carried out. It was fun to see 
the firemen get their things together and roll the hose, and the 
cousins were a little sorry when it was all over. 

“ Let’s go straight back and tell Grandmother about it,” 
Colin said. “ She’ll be awfully interested and she’s too old to 
run to fires herself.” 

“ Maybe she doesn’t have a chance,” Marcia suggested. “ I 
am not so dreadfully old and this is the first chance I’ve 
had.” 

“ I mean she wouldn’t want to chase after a fire department 
if she had the chance,” Colin explained, and Marcia answered 
thoughtfully: 

“ Maybe she wouldn’t.” 

They hurried back to Grandmother and found her cutting 
roses in the garden. 

“Oh, Grandmother!” Colin began excitedly, “we’ve been 
to a fire just down the street and around the corner.” 

“ It was a small house and a little boy had a puppy and a 
kitten,” Cara interrupted. 

“ He didn’t have that until a fireman rescued it from a win¬ 
dow,” Elizabeth Anne corrected. 


46 The Runaway Smalls 

“ And the hose broke and some boys got soaked,” Kenneth 
said. 

“ And we ’most did but a man pulled us away,” Marcia went 
on. 

“ And the roof blazed and was put out and then it blazed 
again and then the firemen climbed up on it,” Buster said. 

Grandmother held up her hands. “ Wait,” she said in a 
gentle voice; “before you tell me about the fire haven’t you 
something else to tell me? ” 

The children looked at her in surprise. 

“ What? ” asked Kenneth after a minute. 

“ Think hard,” Grandmother said. 

They wrinkled up their little foreheads and thought and 
thought, and finally Colin said, “ What was it, Grand¬ 
mother? and if it is something you know about how can we 
tell you? ” 

“ I want to hear what you have to say about it,” Grand¬ 
mother said still more gently. “ Can’t you think? ” 

Something in her voice made the cousins think that whatever 
it was, it was not very pleasant, and without understanding 
just why, they all felt a little guilty. 

Suddenly the little nagging thought came back to Kenneth. 

“ Oh,” he cried in an unhappy voice, “ I know. It’s about 
Huldah” 

The expressions on the faces of the cousins when he said that 
was astonishing. Their mouths opened, their cheeks reddened 
with shame and their eyes looked round and frightened. 


47 


The Runaway Smalls 

“ We—we—we forgot her,” Colin stammered. 

Marcia gave a gasp and said, “ Oh dear! Oh dear! ” and 
Buster said, “ Grandmother!” under his breath as if he was 
afraid to speak out loud. 

Grandmother looked at them very gravely and they stood 
in a sorry little group without saying a word. 

Finally Marcia broke the silence. “ She wasn’t hurt, was 
she, Grandmother? ” 

“ No,” Grandmother said, “ but she might have been.” 

“ What happened? ” Tommie asked. “ How ever did she 
get down and who told you, Grandmother? ” 

“ Huldah told me. She was crying and frightened and so 
was I when I saw what condition she was in. She screamed and 
screamed and finally Roy, who had gone back to the barn for 
something, heard her and let her down just as she fainted. She 
might have fainted and fallen out of that box. Who thought 
of that box? ” 

“ I did,” said Colin stoutly. “ It was an elevator and we 
played in it all morning, and it was really safe for us, Grand¬ 
mother, so we thought it would be safe for Huldah.” 

“ So we got her to ride in it,” Tommie went on. 

“ And she went up all right,” Kenneth added. 

“ But she wouldn’t come down,” Marcia stated. 

“We teased and teased and we were frightened too, but she 
hung on to the beam with both hands and we couldn’t let her 
down,” Colin tried to help with the explaining. 

“ Yes, and she made us tie the rope and she sent us for Roy 


48 The Runaway Smalls 

and Henry and we ran out of the barn and just then the fire 
department came dashing by; the hose cart stopped right down 
the street,” Tommie added. 

“ And we ran after it and forgot everything about Huldah 
and the elevator,” Cara finished. 

Grandmother continued to look at them gravely. “ I im¬ 
agined that was what happened, and I would have sent for you 
but Huldah just this minute went into the house.” 

“ Oh! ” cried Marcia in genuine distress. “ Has that poor 
Huldah been fastened up there all this time? ” 

“ Yes,” said Grandmother seriously, “ she has.” 

There was another long silence and then Colin said, “ Grand¬ 
mother, how can we ever make it up with Huldah? She’ll never 
like us again, and she’ll never forgive us even if we do apolo¬ 
gize.” 

“ Which you must do, of course,” Grandmother said. 

“ Can we do it now? ” Buster asked. 

“ No, I told her to go to her room and rest, but you apologize 
to her later.” 

“ Will she forgive us? ” Tommie wanted to know. 

“ That rests with Huldah,” Grandmother answered, and 
went on cutting her roses. 

The children watched her unhappily for a little while and 
then Colin walked up to her. 

“ Grandmother,” he said with a little shake in his voice, “ I’m 
so sorry and the rest are too. Will you forgive us before we 
ask Huldah to forgive us? ” 


The Runaway Smalls 49 

“ Yes, dear, I will,” Grandmother answered gently, but she 
did not turn to them. 

The cousins all said “ Thank you,” in gulpy little voices and 
quite silently trudged away to the Willow Grove. There they 
sat in a circle to talk it over as they did everything. They de¬ 
cided to ask Huldah please to forgive them and to tell her 
that they would never again do anything that would hurt or 
frighten her. 

“ But that doesn’t seem enough,” Tommie said. 

“ I know what we’ll do,” Marcia cried triumphantly. “ Hul¬ 
dah has been wanting an album that is at the little bookstore. 
It is red plush and has a lovely lady painted on the outside. 
She said it was just the thing to hold her family’s pictures from 
Sweden.” 

“ How much is it? ” Kenneth asked. 

“ Huldah said it was two dollars, that it was three and a 
quarter before Christmas hut the man said she could have it 
for two now; she’s been saving. Let’s get that for her.” 

“ Let’s,” said Tommie and scrambled to his feet. 

“ We’ll meet at Marcia’s,” Colin said, and started for the 
Big House. 

He found his bank and shook thirty cents out of it, all there 
was. Kenneth had his bank at Marcia’s when Colin arrived, 
and said there was forty cents in it. The cousins figured it out 
carefully and decided that they would each give thirty cents 
and that would make two dollars and ten cents. They would 
buy the album and spend the extra ten cents in candy which 


50 The Runaway Smalls 

they would divide evenly. It seemed an easy and fair way to 
figure it out. 

With the money in Kenneth’s pocket they trudged down¬ 
town to the bookstore. There was the album, a great, red 
plush affair with the lovely lady painted on it as Marcia had 
said. The man wrapped it in tissue paper and tied it with a 
purple string and Kenneth paid for it and carried it out care¬ 
fully under one arm. From there they all went to the candy- 
store where they got twenty small sticks of red and yellow 
candy, and then they started back home to find Huldah. 

She was in the kitchen talking with Cook and there were big 
black rings under her eyes, and her face was swollen as if she 
had been crying hard for a long time. 

The children had intended to beg her pardon one at a time, 
but at the sight of her face Colin’s little heart bumped hard. 
His eyes filled with tears and he threw himself on Huldah’s lap. 

“ Huldah, we are all so sorry,” he cried. 

The others flung themselves on Huldah’s lap too; they were 
all crying now. “ Please forgive us, Huldah,” they begged; 
“ it was so mean and naughty but we didn’t intend to be mean 
or naughty.” 

“ The fire department went by and we followed it,” Buster 
explained. 

“ And forgot you and made you cry,” Cara added in a tiny, 
scared voice. 

“ And now we’re all so sorry and ashamed,” Marcia said. 

Huldah had begun to be angry when she saw the children 


The Runaway Smalls 


5 1 



but their honest regret and their real sorrow at having hurt her 
was too much for her. She caught them in her arms, as many 
as she could, and said: 

“ There now, don’t you cry; it’s all right, it is.” 

“ And will you forgive us? ” Kenneth asked. 

“ Sure I will,” Huldah assured him. 

“ We brought this for you. Not to make you think you had 
to forgive us, but because we wanted to do something nice for 
you after doing something so naughty,” and Kenneth pressed 
the bulky package in her hands. 

Huldah untied it. She gave a little cry of pleasure and held 
it up. 









































52 The Runaway Smalls 

“ See what those blessed young ’uns have brought me,” she 
said to Cook. 

Cook sniffed; she was angry at the children herself. But 
Huldah wasn’t. She understood the tender thought that lay 
behind the gift and like the good woman she was, she forgave 
the cousins and told them not to worry about it any more. 

Tommie smiled through his tears; a little spirit of mischief 
prompted him. 

“ You won’t want to ride in the elevator again, will you, 
Huldah? ” he asked. 


“ Me? ” said Huldah. “ Not much I won’t.” 



CHAPTER V 


G RANDMOTHER had just told the cousins the most 
wonderful thing, and they were all very much excited 
and pleased. She was going to take them to the cot¬ 
tage for two weeks. Just Grandmother and the children and 
Huldah and Cook and Roy. Roy to watch them, not that the 
cousins could not be trusted, but the cottage was on the edge of 
a lake and there were boats to be rowed, and smaller boats to 
be sailed and a swim once a day, so of course Grandmother 
thought it wiser to have a man near the cousins at those times 
in case of accident. 

Between sails and swims and games near the water the chil- 

63 







54 The Runaway Smalls 

dren were going to play in the woods and make cities on the 
banks of a jolly little stream that trickled down from the hills 
to the lake. 

“ I have a million plans,” Marcia said; “ the only trouble is 
that there won’t be time to do them all.” 

“ Two weeks is quite a long time,” Colin said hopefully. 

“ What does it matter if we don’t do everything? We’ll be 
busy every minute anyway,” Tommie said wisely. 

The outing was to be a sort of farewell party for Colin who 
was soon to leave his grandmother and his cousins to go back to 
his own mother and father and his own home. He had spent 
a wonderful summer at the Big House and in less than three 
weeks his vacation would be over. He dared not think about 
it, for he had been so happy that he just knew his heart would 
break when it came time to go. The only thought about leav¬ 
ing that made him happy at all was the idea of being with his 
own mother again. She was coming for him from the city 
where they lived and his father was to come too. They would 
stay over Sunday with Grandmother and all of the cousins and 
aunts and uncles would spend Sunday at the Big House. It 
was to be a wonderful good-bye party and would make going 
away not quite so hard. 

But just now the cousins did not think about the end of sum¬ 
mer. Their little heads were filled with great plans for the 
trip. There were no trains going to the little lake where the 
cottage was, and so they were all to drive up with Henry and 
Roy and in two carriages. Grandmother, of course, would go 


The Runaway Smalls 55 

in the most comfortable one and the rest would ride in the big 
picnic wagon. It had three seats with plenty of room for the 
luggage under them, and there was a big space in the back for 
picnic baskets and such. The grown-ups complained about the 
picnic wagon because it had no cover and the sun, beating down 
on their heads, was too hot, or the rain could not be kept off. 
But the children adored the big wagon and never would admit 
that it was not comfortable. 

The cousins were all packed two days before they were to 
go. That is, they had packed the important things, like sets of 
shovels, and hoes, and rakes, and pails to play in the sand, or 
small boats to sail and small dolls to sail in them. They took 
one or two books in case of rain, though Grandmother smiled 
when she saw those and said, “ I’m quite sure they won’t be 
opened.” 

The unimportant things, like shoes and clean frocks and 
suits were left to the mothers. The cousins had no time to 
waste on those. 

It seemed ages before the great day arrived, but finally it 
swung ’round the calendar and the children were all up early. It 
was a beautiful day, warm and clear, and the cousins were more 
pleased than ever with the picnic wagon. 

“ See,” Tommie said triumphantly to his father who was 
helping to load them, “ the sun isn’t too hot and we can see 
everything with no silly cover over our heads.” 

His father laughed. “ I loved it too when I was a lad,” he 
said understandinglv. 


56 The Runaway Smalls 

“ Did you used to ride in this when you were a little boy? ” 
Tommie asked in amazement. 

His father laughed again. ** Tommie boy, that wagon is 
three times as old as you are.” 

It seemed to the cousins that there was a great deal of fuss¬ 
ing to be done but finally they were all tucked in with their bags 
and toys and Roy drove out of the yard where they waited 
while Grandmother and Kenneth and Marcia were tucked in 
the other carriage. 

At last everything was ready and off they went, the horses 
trotting briskly down the paved streets and everjmne smiling 
as the children passed. 

“ Trot a mile, walk a mile, trot a mile and walk a mile and 
you can travel thirty,” Roy quoted when the children asked 
him why he let the horses walk so long. It was fifteen miles to 
the cottage and most of the roads were sandy so Roy drove the 
horses gently and saw to it that they did not get overheated. 

The dogs were not invited, so the cousins planned to leave 
them behind. But the dogs had other plans and when the car¬ 
riages left the city and turned into the woods, the children heard 
barks and there were Pat and Sandy and Rex racing madly 
along with flapping ears and wide smiles on their faces. 
Grandmother said then, “ Oh, let the dear things come.” So 
the three dogs were not separated from their playmates after 
all. 

It was great fun to look back through the woods and see the 
other carriage with Grandmother and Kenneth and Marcia. 


The Runaway Smalls 57 

Once Henry drove right up behind them and then the cousins 
called back and even threw oranges to Kenneth who caught 
them. 

It took them three hours to reach the cottage and what shout¬ 
ing and calling there was when the little green house came in 
sight. The cousins dropped out of the picnic wagon like little 
beetles and raced to the lake shore. Huldah and Cook, who 
had been in the front seat of the picnic wagon, went straight 
to the cottage where Huldah cleaned the rooms and made up 
the beds and Cook got things ready for dinner. She knew the 
children would be hungry and planned all of the things they 
liked. 

Cara promptly fell in the lake and had to have her shoes and 
stockings changed. 

“ Why not go in your bare feet? ” Grandmother suggested, 
and in two minutes not a cousin wore shoes or stockings. 

It was a perfectly wonderful day and the hours seemed to 
go by on wings. Before they realized it, the cousins were called 
to supper and after that Grandmother told them a story and it 
was time for bed. 

But the next morning they were all up with the birds and 
after breakfast Grandmother made plans. They were to row 
in the boats only in the morning when Roy could be with them, 
and every afternoon from three until four they could swim. 
After supper they could play on the shore with their little 
boats, but at all other times they were to keep away from the 
water. They promised gladly because they knew it would save 


58 The Runaway Smalls 

Grandmother from worry, and there were so many wonderful 
things to be done in the woods and on the banks of the stream 
that they were not sorry to be kept away from the lake. 

That day Marcia and Kenneth started some wonderful little 
cities on the edge of the stream. Then each of the children 
built a city and they sent boats back and forth with cargoes to 
sell or exchange. They pulled the boats up the stream with 
stout cords and let them drift down again. It was a splendid 
game and one that they never tired of playing. 

And another day Cara and Elizabeth Anne found a fairies’ 
ballroom. It was under a hollow stump and there were tiny 
ferns growing around it and a smooth floor of brown pine nee¬ 
dles. The children just knew that the fairies danced there 
every night and so they made little tables and chairs of white 
stones, and couches of moss, and every morning they put fresh 
moss in so the fairies would be pleased when they came to dance 
again. 

Every day they walked to the village to get things for Cook 
and that meant a stick of candy for each, which they shared with 
Rex and Pat and Sandy, who sometimes went too. 

But best of all the playtimes and games was the swimming. 
How the cousins did love that. Roy taught them the strokes 
and it was surprising how quickly they learned to swim. Bus¬ 
ter could take ten strokes alone the fourth day and after that 
they all learned to keep themselves up like little ducks. 

One day the boys wanted to go out where it was much deeper, 
but Roy wouldn’t hear of it. He said they would forget all 


The Runaway Smalls 59 

they knew about swimming when they got in deep water and 
he wasn’t taking any chances. 

They used to get into their bathing suits right after dinner 
.(Grandmother didn’t mind, only said she should think they 
would be eaten alive by the mosquitoes) and at three o’clock 
Roy would appear in his swimming suit and there would be 
shouts and splashes and great excitement, for the cousins had 
not the least fear of the water and were almost inclined to be too 
bold. 

But one day something happened that showed them what 
dreadful things could happen, and how quickly. 

Buster and Cara and Elizabeth Anne had gone to the village 
to do errands for Cook. Kenneth and Tommie and Colin were 
adding little houses to their cities on the banks of the stream. 
Grandmother was taking a nap, and Marcia was reading on 
the porch. She looked up and saw the rowboat bobbing up and 
down at the end of the pier. “ It would be fun to sit in that 
and fish,” she thought. “ Grandmother wouldn’t care as long 
as I did not untie it.” And although she knew it was naughty, 
Marcia got her fish line, found a fat bug to put on the hook 
and ran down the pier and jumped into the boat. 

Poor, foolish Marcia. She turned her back to the shore and 
hummed a little tune as she cast her hook and line over the side 
to catch a fine, big fish. Suddenly there was a little tug at 
the hook. Marcia sat very still but was very excited. In 
a minute she felt the nibble again; she gave a quick pull on the 
line and sure enough, she had a wriggling fish firmly hooked. 


to The Runaway Smalls 

Then she grew more excited. “Kenneth, come quick! I’ve 
caught a fish.” She turned her head and gave a gasp. The 
boat was no longer tied to the pier; it was drifting out on the 
lake. 

Her voice was filled with terror. “Kenneth! Kenneth! 
come and help me! ” 

Kenneth, busy on the bank of the stream, looked up. “ Is 
that Marcia calling? ” he asked. They listened. Again Mar¬ 
cia’s frightened call came to them. 

“ Kenneth, come quick! " 

The boys sprang to their feet and raced to the pier. 

“ She’s alone in the boat! ” Colin gasped. 

“ Without oars! ” Tommie cried. 

“ Sit still, Marcia, we’ll get Roy! Don’t move! ” Kenneth 
called. But poor little Marcia, terrified at the distance be¬ 
tween her and land, did not sit still. She stood up to wave and 
call again and stepped to the side of the boat. It tipped 
enough to let the water run in and then quite silently over¬ 
turned. 

“ Grandmother! ” screamed Tommie. 

“ Roy! ” screamed Kenneth. 

Their voices were shrill with terror and both Grandmother 
and Roy heard. Grandmother rushed to the porch and saw 
a little curly head appear above the water near the overturned 
boat and then disappear. Roy, rushing to the pier, took off 
his coat as he ran and waiting only a second to pull off his 
shoes leaped into the water. 


The Runaway Smalls 61 

But someone was before him. A great, bounding Rex 
shot into the water from the shore and swam straight for the 
drowning girl. How rapidly that noble head moved through 
the water! The children watched him fascinated; they did not 
know a dog could swim so fast. Marcia’s curly head came to 
the top again and still Rex was ten feet from her. Grand¬ 
mother, watching in frozen horror, saw the little head go under 
again. She breathed a prayer and held her tightly clenched 
hands to her heart. For the third and last time the dear brown 
head appeared and Rex was there. His great muzzle shot 
forward and he caught Marcia’s dress at the shoulder. His 
jaws closed surely on the material and his head lifted above 
the water to raise Marcia. 

“ Good dog, Rex, hold her,” called Roy, who was swim¬ 
ming frantically. “ Hold her, Rex, hold her.” 

But Rex didn’t have to be told that. He knew how to hold 
Marcia. Didn’t he know how to get her in the first place? 
Like the wise doggie he was, he did not try to swim with her, 
but used his strength to hold her until Roy reached him. His 
great paws went up and down in the water, evenly, steadily. 
Marcia’s weight was almost too much for him, but he intended 
to hold her. Roy was almost there. Rex shut his eyes; he 
was afraid in his doggie heart that he could not do it. The 
wide-spread paws beat the water desperately. He opened 
his eyes, so like a human being’s eyes, and there was Roy. 
One more stroke and Roy held Marcia. Another two or three, 
and the overturned boat was reached. Roy caught it with one 


62 


The Runaway Smalls 

arm and thrust Marcia up on it with the other, and Rex, his 
duty done, turned wearily to the shore. 

Other boats put out. A little launch reached Roy quickly 
and Marcia was carried ashore. A doctor who lived in the 
next cottage was waiting and shortly after a breathing, whim¬ 
pering Marcia was carried to Grandmother. 

The children had never seen Grandmother like this. Her 
gentle calmness was gone. She caught the little girl to her 
breast and sobbed, wildly and uncontrollably, and when Marcia 
was laid on a bed, she sank by it on her knees and sobbed 
still harder. 

“Is Grandmother all right?” Buster asked Huldah, and 
Huldah nodded. 

Cook took the cousins out with her and talked with them 
and told them there was nothing to be frightened about 
now, and presently Huldah came to say that Grandmother 
wanted them, so they went quietly in to Grandmother and 
Marcia. 

Not a word was said, but they all cuddled to Grandmother 
and smiled at Marcia who smiled back at them. After a time 
Grandmother spoke in a broken voice. 

“ You won’t any of you go near the water again, not even 
to swim? ” 

And Buster voiced the feelings of the others when he 
answered, “ No, we couldn’t bear it now.” 

Grandmother spoke again. “ Rex-” she began, but 

could not go on. 


The Runaway Smalls 63 

“ Oh, Rex! ” cried the cousins. “ Isn’t he the wonderfullest 
doggie in the world? ” 

“ He may wear a furry coat and have four feet but he is 
human,” said Kenneth. 

“ With a heart of gold,” Grandmother finished. 

.If Rex could have been spoiled the children certainly would 
have spoiled him. They fed him the choicest bits of food and 
candy and sweets until he wisely refused to eat more. But it 
was Grandmother who thought of the best thing. 

“We’ll get him a wonderful collar,” she promised the 
children. “ It will be of the finest leather and on it will be 
a gold plate, and on that we will have just three words en¬ 
graved.” 

“ And what will they be? ” the children asked. 

“ Rex. Our Hero,” Grandmother answered. 


CHAPTER VI 


A 


LL ready I Come along, children,” shouted Roy. 

The horses were harnessed to the picnic wagon ready 


to take the cousins away from the cottage. Henry had 
driven up the day before and Grandmother was in her carriage 
now waiting for the children who had run to the lake for a last 
look at its smooth waters, and to the fairy stump, and the little 
cities on the banks of the stream. 

At Roy’s call they all came scampering from the woods and 
piled into the wagon. 

“ I just hate to go,” said Kenneth, and the others echoed, 
“ So do we.” 

“ But it is worse for me than any of the rest of you,” Colin 
said mournfully; “ you are just saying good-bye for the winter, 
and I am saying good-bye for always.” 

Grandmother overheard. “ Come here, all of you,” she 
called, leaning from the carriage. The cousins raced to her. 
“We mustn’t let Colin think he is saying good-bye to the cot¬ 
tage for any longer than the rest of you. I don’t believe we 
could get along without Colin here during the summer, and 
when his mother comes I am going to tell her that she will have 
to lend us her little boy for his vacations. What do you think 


of that? ” 


64 


The Runaway Smalls 65 

Colin’s face was beaming. “ Really, Grandmother, do you 
want me? ” 

“We can’t get along without you,” Grandmother smiled; 
“ and if I can’t persuade your mother, I am sure the cousins 
can.” The children laughed aloud at that, for they all knew 
that Grandmother had her way always, because it was a dear, 
kind way, and they knew Colin’s mother could not refuse. 

Grandmother knew there would be heartache when it came 
time to leave the cottage, and so she had saved her little secret 
to tell as they left. A wise, thoughtful grandmother she was 
too, for the cousins forgot their sorrow at goingand straightway 
fell to planning what they would do when Colin came again 
the next year, and so they drove into the woods singing and 
shouting, while the dogs raced along at the wheels and barked. 

It was fun to be home again too. All of the fathers and 
mothers were at the Big House to welcome them and everybody 
talked at once. 

“ News for you, Colin boy,” Kenneth’s father said, and when 
Colin asked what it was, he answered, “ Your mother and fa¬ 
ther are coming to-morrow to stay almost a week.” 

Colin jumped into the air and kicked his heels together. He 
had not known how very glad he would be to see his parents. 
Grandmother had been so good and kind to him that he had 
not been homesick, but when he heard that his mother was 
coming he suddenly realized that he had missed her a great 
deal and that he would be a happy little boy indeed when she 
arrived. 


66 The Runaway Smalls 

In the morning he asked Grandmother if he was to go to the 
train with her. 

“ Of course, dear, and I thought the others could go too. 
You may all drive down with Peekaboo and be waiting at the 
station when your mother arrives.” 

“ And may I drive back to show Mother how well I can 
drive? ” Colin asked. 

Grandmother smiled at that. “ Yes, you may drive, if you 
care to.” 

The train was on time and the cousins stood right where it 
would stop. Peekaboo was tied on the street and the dogs 
were made to stay in the cart so they would not get run over. 
Colin was very much excited and danced about the platform 
getting in everybody’s way. 

At last they heard the whistle and a minute later the engine 
rounded the curve and with a hissing of steam and a grinding 
of brakes came to a stop. 

A slow old man got off and then some women who fussed 
about their bags. Then a fat man clambered down and two 
children jumped after him. Then a lame man got out and 
seemed to take hours coming down the steps. 

“ Oh dear! ” sighed Colin. “ Where is Mother? ” His eyes 
caught sight of a slender man stepping out of the train. 
He catapulted across the platform and jumped to the 
slender man’s shoulder shouting, “ Father! Father! Here I 
am.” 

The slender man dropped his bags and caught Colin to him. 


The Runaway Smalls 67 

“ And he hugged Colin like a great hear,” Cara said after¬ 
ward. 

“ Let me look at you, you great, big, brown boy,” Colin’s 
father said, and turned to the car. “ Here’s your mother,” he 
announced and with a cry of happiness Colin flung him self in 
his mother’s arms. 

It did seem as if she could never let him go. She hugged him 
and kissed him and exclaimed over him. How tall he had 
grown, how brown he was and how sweet, and Colin clung to 
her hands and beamed. 

Then she hugged the rest of the cousins and they told her 
all at once that they had driven the pony down, and that Grand¬ 
mother was in the carriage, and that they wished Colin could 
live with them always and a thousand other things, as Small 
Persons do when they are very happy and excited. 

Colin’s father carried the bags to the carriage and kissed 
Grandmother. “ What have you been doing to my boy? ” he 
asked. “ I scarcely knew him.” 

“ He does look well,” Grandmother answered, “ better than 
when he came. Perhaps I had better keep him.” 

“ You’ll have to talk with his mother about that,” laughed 
Colin’s father; “ here they come now.” And Colin came around 
the comer of the station leading his mother by her hand. She 
got in the carriage and he stepped in after her. 

“ What about driving the pony? ” Grandmother asked. 

Colin cuddled to his mother. “ I can show her how I can 
drive later,” he answered with a contented little smile. 


68 The Runaway Smalls 

Grandmother laughed then and said, “ I thought it would be 
this way.” 

The week passed quicker than any other week during the 
summer. There was so much for Colin to show his mother, and 
so many things to be done, and before he realized it there was 
only one more day left. 

Grandmother had invited every member of the family for 
Sunday dinner, and in the afternoon they were going to set 
tables in the flower gardens and have supper out there under 
the trees when the sun was going down. 

The cousins spent the afternoon wandering around in a sorry 
way while Colin said good-bye to things. They went to the 
Willow Grove and the shed, the hay barn and down the old 
puddle path. 

“ Do you remember the mud battle? ” Kenneth asked of no 
one in particular. 

“ And how dreadful we all looked,” Tommie added. 

“ And the grown-ups never said a word,” Buster went on. 

“ That was because Grandmother laughed first,” Marcia said 
wisely. 

Then they went to the stables to say good-bye to the horses. 
Henry was there and gave them apples to feed each horse. 
There were tears in Colin’s eyes as he fed each beloved horse, 
but when he came to Peekaboo he began to sob and the tears 
rushed down his cheeks and just would not be brushed away. 
He put his arms around the dear brown neck and buried his 
face in the thick, brown mane. 


The Runaway Smalls 


69 



Colin Said Good-bye 















































7© The Runaway Smalls 

“Don’t cry, Colin,” Marcia said gently; “it won’t be so 
awfully long until next summer and you are coming again, you 
know.” 

So Colin smiled through his tears and tried to be brave, but 
his little heart was heavy and he didn’t feel at all like smiling. 

At last they all went back to the gardens and found the 
grown-ups sitting under the trees and visiting. 

“ Come and play with us,” Kenneth shouted. So his father 
rose promptly and said, “ All right, I’ll be it for tag.” 

This was wonderful; the parents did not often romp with the 
children, and they all played tag and hide and seek and pom¬ 
pom, pulling away until everyone was tired out, and then it 
was time for supper. 

The cousins said good-night to Colin with mysterious little 
smiles that Colin could not understand. 

“ What are you smiling at, Marcia? You act as if you knew 
a secret,” he said. 

Then Marcia’s smile grew into a grin, and she answered, 
“ Maybe I do,” but wouldn’t tell any more. 

The train left in the morning at ten o’clock and all of the 
cousins were at the Big House in plenty of time to drive down. 
They went in the pony-cart and Colin drove, of course, because 
it was the last time, and they sang the trot-trot song all the 
way. 

At the station there was a great deal of whispering and gig¬ 
gling and Colin wasn’t allowed to get on the train until Roy 
had carried a box in. 


The Runaway Smalls 71 

“ Now come, Colin,” Buster cried, and Colin climbed on. In 
the seat opposite his mother and father was the box and the 
cousins all stood around it. 

“ Open it quick! It is a present from us all,” Kenneth said. 

“ And it will make you think of us every day,” Cara said. 

“ And not cry when you go,” Marcia added. 

Colin lifted the cover of the box and gave a little gasp of 
pleasure, for there, curled up quite contentedly, was the dearest 
little puppy Colin had ever seen. A curly-haired, red Cocker 
Spaniel with long silky ears and beautiful brown eyes. 

“ Is he for me? ” Colin cried, his face shiny with happiness. 

“ Read what it says on the collar,” Kenneth said, and Colin 
read: 

“ Peter. To Colin from his Cousins.” 

Colin caught Peter in his arms and Peter wriggled joyously, 
and twisted around to lick Colin’s face. 

“ May I have him, Mother? ” Colin asked. 

His mother smiled and nodded. “ Of course, dear, I couldn’t 
say ‘ No ’ to such a dear little doggie when he wanted to come 
and live with us.” 

“ I want to show him to Grandmother,” Colin said, and car' 
ried Peter out to the carriage with the cousins following. 

Grandmother thought him an adorable puppy and told Colin 
she had gone with the children when they went to buy him. 

“ How ever could you keep such a wonderful secret? ” Colin 
asked. 

“ We didn’t have to keep it very long,” Grandmother said, 


72 The Runaway Smalls 

“ as we bought him only yesterday. We had to have your 
mother’s permission first.” 

“ All aboard! ” called the conductor. Colin handed Peter to 
Kenneth. 

“ Hold him for me. I want to hug Grandmother.” He was 
smiling when he said it, but the smile vanished when Grand¬ 
mother took him in her arms. It came over the sensitive little 
boy with a rush how desperately he would miss this dear, kind 
person who had been so good to him and who had given him 
such a happy summer. His arms tightened about her neck and 
his hot, tearful little face was pressed to her cheek. 

“ I can’t! I just can’t say good-bye to you, Grandmother.” 

“ It isn’t good-bye, it is just what you children call ‘ So 
long,’ ” Grandmother whispered, and then she, too, broke down. 
“ My precious little boy,” she cried, “ it is just as hard for me 
to let you go.” 

“ All aboard! ” called the conductor again, and Colin pressed 
another kiss on Grandmother’s cheek. He darted away from 
the carriage but at the train turned and ran back once more. 
Into the carriage he climbed and in Grandmother’s lap again, 
and without a word he kissed her and ran back to the train. 

His eyes were blinded with tears as he hugged each of the 
cousins and aunts and uncles, and sobbing bitterly he got in 
the car and found his father and mother. 

“ Colin dear, you must not cry so hard, you must be brave,” 
his mother said. Her arms went around him as he put his head 
on her shoulder. 


The Runaway Smalls 73 

“ Here,” said his father, “ hold Peter up to wave,” and he 
put the puppy in Colin’s arms. Cohn held him to the window 
and Peter’s paws went up and down. 

“Good-bye, Colin! Good-bye, Peter! Good-bye! And 
come back next summer,” the cousins called. 

“ Good-bye! ” Colin called back. The train moved slowly 
away and he watched the dear cousins until the curve hid them 
from view. He turned to his mother, his little face working 
pitifully; he threw himself on her lap and his body shook with 
sobs. 

“ Why, oh, why must we live in different cities and never 
see each other, when we’d be so happy together always?” he 
cried. 

Poor little Colin, you are asking the questions of Life that 
cannot be answered. Why must we so often do the things that 
hurt? and why must we leave the people we love? Roads and 
Destinies, Colin dearest. And what are they? Dear little boy, 
you will not know until you have traveled them. 






X 





















































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